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In this 2012 photo provided by ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., methane extracted from a hydrate well is burned at a drill site on Alaska’s North Slope. A half mile below the ground at Prudhoe Bay, above the vast oil field that helped trigger construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline, a drill rig has tapped what might one day be the next big energy source. The U.S. Department of Energy and industry partners over two winters drilled into a reservoir of methane hydrate, which looks like ice but burns like a candle as warmth from a match releases methane molecules. (AP Photo/ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., Garth Hannum)

In this 2012 photo provided by ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., methane extracted from a hydrate well is burned at a drill site on Alaska’s North Slope. A half mile below the ground at Prudhoe Bay, above the vast oil field that helped trigger construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline, a drill rig has tapped what might one day be the next big energy source. The U.S. Department of Energy and industry partners over two winters drilled into a reservoir of methane hydrate, which looks like ice but burns like a candle as warmth from a match releases methane molecules. (AP Photo/ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., Garth Hannum)